What Ever Happened to 'Toothing'?

Jim Hanas excertps from his very funny article on the quiet disappearance of last-year's promised digital bacchanal. "Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. You probably read about it over at Wired or Reuters or the BBC. There's a decent chance you even blogged about it. Well. What happened?" Update: 04/05 00:10 GMT by T : Hanas writes with a followup: "The original source on the whole toothing thing has just admitted it was a hoax -- in response to my email and your picking up of my post."

Comments

a/s/l

[fembots]

Well, like teething, it'll stop sooner or later.

I was Feeling-Google-Lucky with "toothing" (thanks FireFox!) and this Toothing Blog was last updated on April 28 2004.

And finding partners for sex using bluetooth mobile is as productive as asking a/s/l on IRC channels, or Mrs Gump's box of chocolate.

Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?

Re:a/s/l

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?

You're a girl, aren't you?

Re:a/s/l

[cooter1pt2]

Isn't that what you do in a club or bar? Or even, to a lesser extent, a house party? I doubt toothers would just accept blindly anyone who replied (say, if upon seeing them, they were a hideous, snaggle-toother beast). So in a way, yes, I can say I have engaged in that kind of risky behavior (avec condom). Wouldn't do it again, tho.

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

man you need to go to college.

lets just say, women with loose morals run rampant.
(and i even go to a Catholic College)

Re:a/s/l

[murphyslawyer]

if upon seeing them, they were a hideous, snaggle-toother beast

Wait - this is the craze that was sweeping ENGLAND?

Re:a/s/l

[mrchaotica]

A girl? On Slashdot?? No, she's a fembot -- look at the name.

Re:a/s/l

[Shalda]

(and i even go to a Catholic College)

Well, duh. Give girls a lifetime of sexual repression and two beers and the rest takes care of itself. I find that the less repressed they are, the better they control their urges.

Re:a/s/l

[Xugumad]

Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?
Yes is so much the wrong answer, isn't it? :)

Re:a/s/l

[jacen_sunstrider]

Time to move to England, eh chap?

Re:a/s/l

[happyemoticon]

And finding partners for sex using bluetooth mobile is as productive as asking a/s/l on IRC channels, or Mrs Gump's box of chocolate.

I've not done this myself, and /. is not the best place for an honest discussion of sexuality by damn sight.

First: There is one criterion for hooking up: looks. Man, woman or otherwise, you know whether you'd screw person x within a half second of meeting them. Chatrooms are a waste of time. thefacebook.com and okcupid.com are a bit better because of the addition of pictures, but those can be faked or obfuscated and the whole process isn't immediate enough, which is key if you're looking to do impulsive.

Second: There is a reason this happened in England. Mainstream American women have tons of hangups about sex that British women simply do not.

Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?

This is an excellent example of my last point. Some people, especially women, only acknowledge three roles for women: the virgin, the mother and the slut. That's pretty sad. It's not about doing anybody, it's about finding someone mildly attractive who wants the same thing as you do, and it's more conveniant if you're a commuter than going to a bar.

Re:a/s/l

[EnronHaliburton2004]

No, she's a fembot -- look at the name.

That's great! I see they have made many improvements with these bots since I last played...

The fembots used to just run around and circles and got confused when they ran into a corner.

Now, they can dodge and shoot around corners.

Great work to the fembot designers!

Re:a/s/l

[CSMastermind]

Well I'd more or less agree with you (I'm going to assume your from the UK???) Either way, I'd imagine that face book and others like it are immediate enough for most people, I mean even "toothing" would take time. The good thing about face book is by nature it has a short built in "waiting period" that occures because you have to look up and talk to people first. I don't know if anyone needs immediate gradification.

Re:a/s/l

[caino59]

someone mod parent up

so true.

Re:a/s/l

[antarctican]

Sounds to me like someone bought a ticket to London hoping to get laid, and came home disapointed....

Sorry, if they won't touch your pot-belly, nacho stained D&D shirt in North America, they won't touch it in London either.... ;)

Re:a/s/l

[qyiet]

You're a girl, aren't you?

She is, and she has machine gun jublies.

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

And finding partners for sex using bluetooth mobile is as productive as asking a/s/l on IRC channels, or Mrs Gump's box of chocolate.

I met my ex wife of 5 years asking ASL in an IRC chat. She is also the mother of my child.

I also meet most of my dates and yes sexual partners in chat rooms. Not because I don't go out, I do, but there are more nights at home than nights at the bar, and chatting and flirting are more fun and more social than watching television.

No matter how horny you are, you wouldn't just jump into bed with anybody, would you?

Which would you prefer, to jump into bed with a hunk you met at the bar and had some chemistry with, only to find out later that he's a selfish, obsessive, jealous boar who doesn't like to go down, or to jump into bed with someone who is compatible with you in their values and interests and quirks, who shares your likes and dislikes where sex and relationships are concerned, but is on the attractive side of plain. Because when people meet through chatting, when they actually meet face to face they can see pretty quickly if the person is a no-go in the physical department and call it off at the eleventh hour, while the bar-goer generally probably won't find out until it's too late.

Looking back, I had more fun with the plain jane lookalikes who caught my attention because they were my kind of lighthearted kinky in the bedroom that with the look-at-me gorgeous women I've brought home from the bar only to find out that they were plain boring in bed.

Re:a/s/l

[Xugumad]

Or more to the point, they're probably someone who feels reasonably confident that, if they want to get laid, they can do in the short to medium term. If someone is a lot less sure when (or if) they'll get another off, I think they're a helluva lot less likely to be in any way picky.

Losing track of my point here. Mostly, I think people who do have something resembling a regular/normal sex life might not realise just how desperate a small but vocal minority of /. users get.

I'm giving up now, taking the karma bonus off, and hoping this isn't too much babblage.

Re:a/s/l

[Scrameustache]

A girl? On Slashdot?? No, she's a fembot -- look at the name.

Stronger, faster. Better than a regular girl!

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

> gradification.

I'm going to guess you're from the USA.
Everyone else knows how to pronounce their Ts, and so wouldn't make that spelling mistake.

Re:a/s/l

[owlstead]

Which college? Wait, this is a public forum, forget I asked.

Re:a/s/l

[prockcore]

I met my ex wife of 5 years asking ASL in an IRC chat.

Oooh.. good example!

Re:a/s/l

[Zeinfeld]

Or more to the point, they're probably someone who feels reasonably confident that, if they want to get laid, they can do in the short to medium term. If someone is a lot less sure when (or if) they'll get another off, I think they're a helluva lot less likely to be in any way picky.

I think you yankee types are have fallen for the British sense of humour. Toothing was a wind up from the beginning. If you think about it toothing pretty much amounts to going up to a stranger and saying 'wanna fuck'.

This does not work too well in email, why would it work better over bluetooth? Plus you have the problem that if this is going to work for the heterosexual crowd you need to attract opposite sexes for it to work.

Think for a moment how many phones would have to be bluetooth enabled for this to work, plus think of the number of folk who would be receiving (and complaining about) the solicitations.

That said, the UK is way less uptight than the US. Prostition is effectively legal and there is a public sex scene known as dogging.

The kernel of truth in this hoax is that bluetooth does provide an additional medium to chat someone up that you might not otherwise talk to. I doubt that sending a message 'U wanna fuck me?' would be optimally effective as a conversation starter but you could easily imagine starting off with chat and ending up with a quickie.

Of course none of this would work in the US because trains are not exactly a common mode of transportation.

Re:a/s/l

[ThousandStars]

Well, it was England, so maybe the GP bought a ticket, surveyed the scene and realized the mistake.

Re:a/s/l

[Tiiijpei]

I'm a hideous, snaggle-toother beast you insensitive clod!!!!

Re:a/s/l

[bleckywelcky]

Dude, have you seen the younger English women? Not the older 30s and 40s "grew up without a dentist in the stone age" beasts. But the younger 20s hotties that have emerged with a normal and healthy upbringing ... lots of them are damn freaking hot.

Re:a/s/l

[aljechin]

burps, fascinating

Re:a/s/l

[azrebb]

Damn! Beat me to it...

Re:a/s/l

[Brushfireb]

Been there, and english girls, no matter what, do not hold a candle to most women of similar age in Italy Or Southern France.

Here in the US, the hottest blonde's are in the midwest, the hottest brunette's on the east coast. Generally. At least, this has been my experience while traveling.

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

I met my ex wife of 5 years asking ASL in an IRC chat.

Oooh.. good example!

Ha ha. Funny funny. Your wit astounds me.

We were together for years, moved across the globe together twice and have a child together. Yeah, it ended, but it was the longest relationship of either of our lives. What you want, a written guarantee? In modern western society, I'd call 5 years a success story. How many relationships have you had that lasted longer?

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

I think you yankee types are have fallen for the British sense of humour. Toothing was a wind up from the beginning. If you think about it toothing pretty much amounts to going up to a stranger and saying 'wanna fuck'.

I take it from your post that no one has ever done this to you? Hell, that's happened to me at the supermarket.

Although, truth be told, I brushed her off, so I suppose that makes me supporting evidence :P

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, if they won't touch your pot-belly, nacho stained D&D shirt in North America, they won't touch it in London either.... ;)

This is not true. I don't know what it is but a pot-bellied American with a stained D&D shirt, body armor, and partly balding has no problem getting laid in London. I'm told that North American men are less sexualy repressed than their English counterparts, and their peni are more likely to be circumcised. Most of the women who have sent me pictures of their vagina, either by webcam or mobilecam, were from England. Belgium comes in a close 2nd.

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

Which would you prefer, to jump into bed with a hunk you met at the bar and had some chemistry with,

Like your ex wife of whom you spawned with?

Re:a/s/l

[Rii]

Pfft- let me know when pause, fast forward, and mute functions are available.

Re:a/s/l

[HyperHyper]

Touche SheildW0lf.. :)

Re:a/s/l

[flyingsquid]

Dude, have you seen the younger English women?

MOOOOOO!

Yes, in other words.

Re:a/s/l

[LutzWalsh]

Isn't the realy queston... who needs "toothing" when mac has such wonderfull bluetooth support? primitvie stone-age emotions, there are alternative plesaures ;)

Re:a/s/l

[terpri]

The fembots used to just run around and circles and got confused when they ran into a corner.

Funny, I had an alarm clock like that once...

Re:a/s/l

[Daengbo]

Looks don't always matter. Even I once had a woman come to my apartment to prove to me that light skinned women are as good in bed as dark skinned. Her words, not mine...

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

I met my ex wife of 5 years ...

only to find out later that he's a selfish

Boy where do I start?

If I read this correctly, you met a 5 year old in an IRC chat who you subsequently got pragnent to only find out you like the other sex?

What a mess! ;-)

Just kidding bro.

Re:a/s/l

[Creedo]

How many relationships have you had that lasted longer?
10 years in July. If you count the dating phase, 12. 3 kids.

What you want, a written guarantee?
Well, I have a verbal one. Mine stipulates death as the only solvent for this arrangement.

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

So I'm guessing that the answer is precisely one then?

Re:a/s/l

[saskboy]

"Which would you prefer, to jump into bed with a hunk you met at the bar and had some chemistry with, only to find out later that he's a selfish, obsessive, jealous boar who doesn't like to go down, or to jump into bed with someone who is compatible with you in their values and interests and quirks, who shares your likes and dislikes"... and an interest in dying Bluetooth technology :-)

Re:a/s/l

[Creedo]

So I'm guessing that the answer is precisely one then?
Well, yes. Given my age and the length of my marriage, it is the only possible answer.
Please note that I was not denigrating your relationship. I simply find it odd that 5 years is considered substantial. I am constantly discovering new things about my wife, and our relationship is continually evolving.
Out of curiosity(and feel free not to answer if it uncomfortable), do you consider that relationship to have been a permanent one that failed early, or a transitory one that lasted longer than normal?

Re:a/s/l

[Green Salad]

Do you consider that relationship to have been a permanent one that failed early, or a transitory one that lasted longer than normal?

Very interesting question!

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

I consider it a permanent one that should never have failed. The stresses of parenthood, moving internationally twice, money troubles after the last move capped off with 8 months of my working days and pretty much raising my kid alone while she did shift work at night and slept all day. A beautiful woman with a foreign accent far from her home and friends who's trying to get her confidence back after childbirth, us never getting to spend any time together, and her working training in a call center with a culture of young single childless players that don't hold a whole lot of respect for someone elses marrige.

To top everything off, when we'd reached that point that we needed some space before we could think about starting fresh and were ready to try getting separate places and dating again, immigration requirements made that impossible, and we were forced to live together for the sake of maintaining both of our access to our kid. If we'd split for even a month, they would have deported her. So instead of taking the time to breathe and reevaluate things, we were forced to live together angery. That was the nail in the coffin... we both got mighty lonely and mighty cruel. We split the moment I got the papers finished to sponser her to stay in the country, and we really hurt each other a bit too much at the end for me to think it could ever be mended.

At least we both still have access to our kid. It could have turned out a hell of a lot worse. Forgive her, forgive myself and move on, eh?

Re:a/s/l

[elyobelyob]

"But the younger 20s hotties that have emerged with a normal and healthy upbringing." Is that an American normal and healthy upbringing? Because the majority of "young 20s" I see daily are porkers. And they show this lard off by revealing their midriff. I feel ill thinking about it.

Re:a/s/l

[boot1973]

That's a really sad story. Any chance of you getting back together?

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

Even where an English person has awry teeth at least they are all their own.

Americans on the other hand have a face full of artificial crap which glow in the dark and can be seen 500 metres away. As for their women the vast majority have ugly big square jaws, plastic tits, the naffest hair you could ever imagine and great big LARDY arses. Those American arses are HUGE.

Thanks to their rabid desire to all be the same the amount of surgery an American undergoes makes them more akin to Frankensteins monster than Homo Sapiens.

Give me the English any day. All manner of size, shapes, colours, creeds and with all manner of toothiness. Built as nature intended.

God save the Queen.

Re:a/s/l

[Kosi]

I take it from your post that no one has ever done this to you?

You ask as if it was quite normal, not something very exceptional (unless you are exceptionally rich/famous/handsome).

C'm on, such a thing would be very remarkable, even for the womanizers under my buddies!

Re:a/s/l

[Valdrax]

At least we both still have access to our kid. It could have turned out a hell of a lot worse. Forgive her, forgive myself and move on, eh?

Well put.

Re:a/s/l

[ShieldW0lf]

Make a point not to speculate on that anymore.

Re:a/s/l

[bleckywelcky]

Thanks for stating the obvious. Comparing English women to their younger counterparts from Italy or Spain (possibly French, but not so much as the others) is like comparing a Cessna 172 to an F/A-18 Hornet. I'm just saying they are hot for the sake of being hot, not that they are the most beautiful women on Earth. Hands down, some of the hottest women out there are from Italy and Spain. I once knew a lady that was 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Spanish ... omg ... that was like 7 years ago and I could just die thinking about her right now. Absolutely one of the most gorgeous women I have ever laid eyes upon.

Re:a/s/l

[AGMW]

Most of the women who have sent me pictures of their vagina, either by webcam or mobilecam, were from England.

Gor blimey Gov'ner! There's a septic wants a butcher's at me Berkeley!

Re:a/s/l

[Anonymous Coward]

> so true.

Seconded.

Re:a/s/l

[hesiod]

> In modern western society, I'd call 5 years a success story.

You really need to move away from California. Or meet more people. Or something, nowhere in the U.S. is a 5 year marriage considered a success. You may have enjoyed it and loved everything about it and can even be happy with the result, but it is not a "successful marriage" by any stretch of the imagination. Which is not to insult you, some marriages are just not meant to be, shit happens. But don't fool yourself.

Re:a/s/l

[iced_773]

Seriously, no matter how horny you are, you wouldn't simply jump on bed with anybody, would you?

Many men actually would, and that is why there is prostitution. Most normal (ie not willing to be whores) women won't jump in bed with just anyone, so you won't likely find male prostitutes.

It

[Anonymous Coward]

It got pulled bad dum CHING!

Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[LiquidCoooled]

Along with leg warmers and flash mobs.

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Leeesher]

*sigh* oh.. the good old days of toother flashmobs..

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Anonymous Coward]

The only people who still do toothing are elderly Koreans. Actually, it's more like gumming than toothing.

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Anonymous Coward]

news google toothing and it is this slashdot article. also that japanese thingie in the wired article, imagine if someone set it wrong? forgot about it and well the rest is up to you.

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Scrameustache]

flash mobs.

The people who hunt flash happy web designers with torches and pitchforks? They called it quits?

Does that mean they got them all? : )

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[PedanticSpellingTrol]

Sir, you have directed me to my new calling in life. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Fjornir]

There's a project I'll fund. Are you ready to recieve paypal donations yet?

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[nzlemming]

Would that qualify as a paypal blessing?

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[Huring]

Paypal? tell me where to send the gold bullion...

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[DeputySpade]

wokka wokka!

Re:Toothing has been filed as novely item #127345

[hesiod]

It's nice to know that others share the same opinion of Flash as I. I always hated it and thought it was one of the worst ideas ever to build entire websites with it (or even just one full page), but rarely heard people complain.

Sorry

[qurve]

Sorry, I was busy toothing.

what the...

[PunkOfLinux]

WHAT THE heck >.> that's kinda creepy >.>

What happened?

[Qzukk]

Well, theres AIDS, Herpes, Syphillis, and discovering that the cute 20-something you were TXTing a minute ago seems to have become a disturbing 50 year old man with bad teeth and worse breath.

Re:What happened?

[bani]

sounds like you speak from experience.

Re:What happened?

[cdrudge]

I just saw a picture, not less then a week ago, that describes this very thing. IIRC there was a younger guy sending a message to an attractive woman across a bus or subway car. Except it ended up that the guy was talking to the dirty biker-type guy next to her.

I can't seem to remember where I saw it at though for the live of me. The article did mention that the scene was a little guy heavy though.

Re:What happened?

[dgatwood]

Nope. He just listened to the radio ad like everybody else.

Experience? On Slashdot? You must be new here. :-D

Re:What happened?

[screwballicus]

discovering that the cute 20-something you were TXTing a minute ago seems to have become a disturbing 50 year old man with bad teeth and worse breath.

Or discovering that the big, hairy 50 year old bear daddy you were trying to pick up is some cute-but-straight 20-something who's just playing with you.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

Excuse me but I'm not 50.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do believe that was a joke piece in Maxim or some such...

Re:What happened?

[torpor]

If you ever meet a cute 20-something straight chick who plays with people like that, please send her my way. just my type.

Re:What happened?

[gstoddart]

the cute 20-something you were TXTing a minute ago seems to have become a disturbing 50 year old man with bad teeth and worse breath.
sounds like you speak from experience.

Well, the story does mention it was in England after all -- so the bad teeth thing may not be a huge stretch. =)

[ sorry to any Brits, I know you don't all have bad teeth ]

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

the bad teeth thing may not be a huge stretch

This is a reoccuring stereotype that makes me wonder every time.

I have no idea where this has come from, I can't think of any particular reason why British people would have worse teeth and I have my self never thought that you yanks have better teeth than Brits. Surely Janet hasn't ruined it for the rest of us.

Re:What happened?

[pLnCrZy]

Well... ever since Bob Fish moved to Canada, dental hygiene has gone the wayside in London.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

Between water fluoridation (a bad idea, IMO, but it does admittedly reduce tooth decay statistics) and the availability of free dentistry for children, bad teeth aren't so common in the British isles.

Re:What happened?

[bashibazouk]

It very well may have changed, but I think the stereotype comes from lack of orthodontics rather than bad dentistry or lack of hygiene. In the USA if your teeth are even slight out of whack it's braces for you. In England there seems to be more acceptance of the natural state of teeth and not quite the psychotic need to straighten them. At least that's my theory and it could be wrong or have changed. It's be a bit over a decade since I've traveled to the UK.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I was the 50-year-old. Kids these days are so easy to freak out.

Re:What happened?

[ewieling]

I HATE it when that happens.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're pretty much on the mark there, although there is a plaque of cosmetic correction creeping from the idle-monied types thru to the rest of the populous (just in case we all end up on Pop Idol or fail to attract some vacuous idiot of a partner...)

My own experience is that I've had two sets of orthodontic treatment to cure a pretty bad overbite. After each treatment my teeth have sprung back to close to their original position... One unexpected benefit is that there are too many interdental gaps for much food to get stuck.

Do I care? Not enough to have my bones fractured just to bring everything together... anyway, I like the gap-toothed maniac chic.

Re:What happened?

[pclminion]

A couple of years ago, I ran into a couple of Brits in a backwoods cabin (the kind of place you snowshoe into with a fifth of good whiskey and an itching to have a good time). After we'd all had a bit too much to drink, I asked one of the Brits "So, what's the deal with all the joking about British oral hygiene?"

He looked at me a bit funny, as if he didn't know what I meant, and then said "What's with you Americans being so obsessed with how straight and white your teeth are?"

It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps it is WE (Americans) who are oddballs when it comes to our teeth. Most other people on the planet are happy just for the fact that they haven't fallen out yet. Here, people spend thousands of dollars on tooth-whitening regimens. People in other nations laugh at our stupidity.

Re:What happened?

[failure-man]

I don't think that particular bit of stupidity is what the rest of the world is thinking of when they laugh at us. ;)

Re:What happened?

[marcbloch]

AIDS, Herpes, Syphillis, and...

CAVITIES! You always have to keep an eye on your cavity situtation.

Re:What happened?

[connorbd]

Not that bad an idea -- there isn't enough NaF put in at the waterworks to be toxic to begin with, and the benefits do outweigh the risks. At the end of the day it's exactly like putting iodine in salt.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps it is WE (Americans) who are oddballs when it comes to our teeth. Most other people on the planet are happy just for the fact that they haven't fallen out yet. Here, people spend thousands of dollars on tooth-whitening regimens. People in other nations laugh at our stupidity.

No, we understand. When you way 300 pounds, have never seen the ocean and can't pronounce the word nuclear, it pays to have the best damn teeth you can.

Re:What happened?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahem... *weigh*

Re:What happened?

[dcam]

My sister went on exchange to London for 6 months with her company. The funny thing was the reactions of the dentists. In Australia they used to say "ooooh not good" when they looked into her mouth.

In England they called over collegues to show them how good her teeth were.

Re:What happened?

[gstoddart]

This is a reoccuring stereotype that makes me wonder every time.

I have no idea where this has come from

Me neither, but I know Austin Powers perpetuated it rather than starting it though.

Re:What happened?

[jizmonkey]

Let's just put it this way: If you mention that Americans see orthodontia or plastic surgery as lucrative professions to go into, British people will laugh at you.

Americans have an even more positive outlook on straightened, bleached teeth as they do on silicone-implanted boobs. The difference is that parents have their kids' teeth done, and childhood plastic surgery is not recommended. Also there are a good number of Americans who find plastic surgery distasteful, but almost universally they see nothing wrong with orthodontia.

One benign explanation may be that in America children don't drink coffee, tea, or other tooth-staining foods.

Re:What happened?

[pommiekiwifruit]

I'm sure the Kings Arms on Poland Street or Club XXL can help you there...

Re:What happened?

[hesiod]

> have never seen the ocean and can't pronounce the word nuclear,

Once you live in the middle of a country that is 2500 miles across, then you can fucking talk about "seeing the ocean." If you live in the U.K., going to the ocean is an afternoon excursion. From Oklahoma, US it's a three day drive.

And that's one person, most of the country pronounces it correctly.

It turns out...

[halcyon1234]

No one got laid.

Welcome to the Internet.

Re:It turns out...

[eviloverlordx]

Yeah, but Rosie got a hell of a workout.

2 words...

[Anonymous Coward]

venereal disease.

QED

Ouch.

[ethzer0]

I always say less toothing.

Re:Ouch.

[heavy snowfall]

he he he...

Those who...

[Tackhead]

> Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. You probably read about it over at Wired or Reuters or the BBC. There's a decent chance you even blogged about it. Well. What happened?

Those who read about it, never blogged about it.
Those who blogged about it, never read about it.
Those who remember it, were too busy to either read about it or blog about it.

Being a geek, I'm kind of amazed I even wasted the time to read about it.

Re:Those who...

[LiquidCoooled]

So, let me get this straight...

2 random people just happen to fuck each other on a train whilst they have their mobiles on.

This chance mating is captured by a geek on the way to work, who discusses it with his blogger friend.
This escalates until the whole world then spent the next 6 months and countless gigabytes of porn bandwidth discussing one chance random sexual encounter and ponder the implications of it, and whether or not it will happen to them?

Boy, talk about a storm in a teacup.

Re:Those who...

[peawee03]

And then the geek's blogger friend's geek friend creates an atmospheric simulation on 8-node Athlon cluster he keeps in his basement just to see if it's possible to create his own storm in a teacup.

So what does this geek do when he approaches some woman who he toothed and finds him attractive enough to screw? "My computer models indicate that there is a 97.33% chance that I will commence vaginal insertion upon your pelvic regions in the next 6 hours. Why don't we go somewhere more... private...".

No wonder why toothing died as quick as it came to be.

What happened?

[nacturation]

Maybe toothing led to teething.

Toothing? It grew long in the tooth...

[Anonymous Coward]

It grew long in the tooth and had to be put down...

Toothers were all wiped out

[PCM2]

cf. "Golgafrincham"

Toothing quickly went out of favor.

[AtariAmarok]

Toothing quickly fell out of favor because too many took the term literally, resulting in incisor wounds to sensitive genital-area skin. ouch!.

Promiscuous Mode: Off

[mattkime]

Apparently people have wised up and turned off promiscuous mode.

(Its a good way to prevent virus transmission.)

Re:Promiscuous Mode: Off

[Anonymous Coward]

it did say while commuting. maybe they realized the girls on the corner were closer?

Re:Promiscuous Mode: Off

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask me about Athiest Fundamentalism

What the fuck is an athiest?

Slashdot

[Scrameustache]

News for nerds, stuff that might have been.

Re:Slashdot

[Tackhead]

> News for nerds, stuff that might have been.

What do you mean "might have been?" :)

Uhh...

[darkmeridian]

April Fool's Day ended?

I don't know what happened

[The Bungi]

Maybe someone set them up the bomb.

Or maybe they all died from some sort of transmitted disease. We can only hope.

I get enough of this avant garde techno "green is the new black" cyber bullshit from people who fellate their iPods in public, thankyouverymuch.

No, I'm having a great day. Really.

Here's what happened

[Anonymous Crowhead]

You see, English people aren't the most attractive people in the world. They kept meeting up and saying things like, "You look like a horse's arse", "Bob's certainly not your uncle" and similarly witty phrases. It didn't take long before everyone realized they were just wasting their time and just went home and masturbated.

Re:Here's what happened

[Cheirdal]

You obviously haven't been to the UK. I would say per capita London has more hotties than any U.S. city. On top of that the population over there is a lot more lean than us fat asses in the U.S. What really happened was that the news made the story up or greatly exagerrated the extent of "toothing" as they tend to do with tech stories.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you've confused the word shitty many times. You infact meant non gluttonous sized portions of food, proper real ale and varied weather with more culture than the states will ever have.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I kept messaging Elizabeth Hurley, until she finally got a restraining order against me.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

overfed americans such as yourself don't look so great either. (not saying all americans are overfed, but if he gets to use an innacurate prejudice then so do I)

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

You infact meant non gluttonous sized portions of food, proper real ale and varied weather with more culture than the states will ever have.

Proper real ale can be had, but you have to go microbrew to get it. There are even a few that go out of their way to emulate the British counterpart by adding talc to simulate heavy water but for the most part they are not enjoyed.

More culture than the states will ever have? Please! It's true America doesn't have much in the way of it's own culture, but we import it all. All I need to is go a few miles in any direction and get Little China, Little Vietnam, Little Laos, Little Japan, Little Korea, Little Deli, Little England with its Irish Ale, and Little Ethiopia. On the same block you can find a Church, Sinigod, and Mosque. Temples for others are cross the street.

Varied weather? Is there anywhere in England or the whole of the UK where you can hit the beach in summer, get the surfing in, and make a run to the mountains and cool off in the snow? Hurricanes on one side, tsunamis on the other, and tornados down the middle.

And where in England can you climb a mountain peak, urinate with the foreknowledge that your urine will end up in two entirely different oceans some thousands of miles apart? That's America right there.

Re:Here's what happened

[Trinn]

bleh, remind me to avoid london then...sick and tired of the skinny craze...all of the girls I see have no curves, they dieted all their femininity away!

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

We can go one better - in England you can go up on a mountain peak and urinate with the foreknowledge that your urine will probably end up in the water supply of most of the major cities in the country before it gets anywhere near a goddamn ocean.

Re:Here's what happened

[Deliveranc3]

Pity British Women, British Men have the french 20 minutes away by boat.

Yea they have to learn a new language but IT's WORTH IT!

Re:Here's what happened

[Petrushka]

You obviously haven't been to the UK. I would say per capita London has more hotties than any U.S. city.

I lived in the UK some time ago and spent three years in Manchester. I understand exactly what the gp is talking about. All I can say is YEEEEURRGGGHHH.

Re:Here's what happened

[horza]

God yes. London is about par with the French Riviera where I live now. When you walk to the station the whole street is like a supermodel catwalk. I simply cannot believe how huge American girls are! It really is a tribute to the natural genetic engineering of the human heart can sustain such behemoths. When my friends/family come back from the USA I'm tempted to sell their holiday videos as cannibal porn.

It was obvious "toothing" is a hoax here as by default bluetooth is turned off on all phones as it drains the batteries too much.

Phillip.

Re:Here's what happened

[tylernt]

I think you need to post some pictures here to back up you claims.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

We can go one better - in England you can go up on a mountain peak and urinate with the foreknowledge that your urine will probably end up in the water supply of most of the major cities in the country before it gets anywhere near a goddamn ocean.

Even better... urine with massive amounts of hydro-electric you can measure your urine in terms of kilowatts as it's sent through countless dams including the largest one in the world. Who would you rather drink you urine, citizens of London or L.A.?

But fortunatly most Americans prefer to use the loo. This can't be said for England.

Re:Here's what happened

[The Milkman]

So...

Your only point about culture was about all the various little whatever's that you can find and a lot of various places of worship.

This just proves that you've never actually been to London and haven't the first fucking clue what you're talking about.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Coward]

French women? Hairy armpits. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Re:Here's what happened

[iainl]

Quoth the AC "Is there anywhere in England or the whole of the UK where you can hit the beach in summer, get the surfing in, and make a run to the mountains and cool off in the snow? Hurricanes on one side, tsunamis on the other, and tornados down the middle."

Once again the American fails to understand distance. You could go surfing on the Cornish coast in the morning, and be hiking across Dartmoor within the hour. Good luck on getting anywhere at all in the US in that time.

Re:Here's what happened

[Anonymous Crowhead]

You could go surfing on the Cornish coast in the morning, and be hiking across Dartmoor within the hour. Good luck on getting anywhere at all in the US in that time.

Easily. On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. From a few miles out the ocean to about 25 miles inland, lies the most diverse ecosystem on the entire planet. And that is an absolute fact.

like most media-hyped crazes...

[utexaspunk]

it probably never happened in the first place. methinks it goes something like this- joe reporter has a deadline to make, and nothing to write about. needs something sensational, turns to his fantasies, and voila! toothing!

Re:like most media-hyped crazes...

[FidelCatsro]

haah sounds about righ
Up in Scotland we had some more crazy ideas about dating than our neighbours south of the border , we decided not to use those old school toothing tech and went to the more advanced tounging ;)

Re:like most media-hyped crazes...

[4of12]

Not at all.

You just have to be on the lookout for important stories that have a profound impact on Nerddom,

"Napoleon Dynamite Look-alikes Fighting Off Beautiful Nymphomaniac Cheerleaders"

I can't begin to tell you the tragedy of what happened to the unsuspecting herds of nerds that were not up to date on this important news item.

Re:like most media-hyped crazes...

[Anonymous Coward]

ok that sounds more filthy than i intended .. i mean french kissing ...

Re:like most media-hyped crazes...

[thesalodonkey]

He claims to be the hoaxster URL:http://www.thetriforce.com/newblog/?p=53

I always thought Spencer Tracey said that:

[Thud457]

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

Too Hard

[TVC15]

It was too hard for the average user. Perhaps if Apple built it into the iPod and integrated it with the scroll wheel it would reach critical mass.

On second thought, just get a Lovegety

Re:Too Hard

[nacturation]

It was too hard for the average user. Perhaps if Apple built it into the iPod and integrated it with the scroll wheel it would reach critical mass.

Sounds good to me. I hereby dub it bodCasting.

Re:Too Hard

[Axis of Weasel]

maybe not being hard enough was half of the problem?

Re:Too Hard

[Drakonian]

Well done, sir!

High school bluetoothing

[Nevtje(hr]

i remember when i was in high school, i would occasionally scan a room for other bluetooth receivers which had their port open, then create a contact whose name was what i wanted the message to be, ie "Boyaa Wazzap" or something. then i would send the contact, via bluetooth, to the detected phone. free, short-range SMS kinda :)

i know, not setting up sexual encounters... but still a fun use for bluetooth

Re:High school bluetoothing

[calibanDNS]

This is called BlueJacking. See here. I've tried this in the US (airports, malls, etc) and it just doesn't work as well on this side of the pond. BlueTooth phones aren't widespread enough in the US, but over the next few years I'd expect to see them become more popular.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[Anonymous Coward]

remember when i was in high school, i would occasionally scan a room for other bluetooth receivers which had their port open, then create a contact whose name was what i wanted the message to be, ie "Boyaa Wazzap" or something. then i would send the contact, via bluetooth, to the detected phone.

I think I am just getting to the age where I understand what "generation gap" means. I know what bluetooth (my Palm has it), and I get the principle behind what you were doing. And I even once went to high school. But if I got a message that said "Boyaa Wazzap", I would have have no idea what to make of it.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[UWC]

I find it interesting how much regulation of wireless communications in schools has changed since I was in high school (1996-2000), when pagers and cell phones were officially considered "drug paraphernalia" and thus subject to confiscation if discovered (no active searches were performed, but there were morons who didn't turn theirs off during the day). Obviously most teachers enforcing it didn't actually assume that they were drug paraphernalia, but I witnessed several confiscations, mostly pagers at that point. Most teachers, I think, returned them at the end of the day.

I recall my family having a cell phone sometime in that period that was gigantic by today's standards, analog-only, and the display was a row of 7-segment characters and maybe 3 more LEDs to indicate service, roaming, etc.

Your point about Bluetooth's continued rarity in the US is valid and, to me, disappointing. It allows the service providers to be the ultimate arbiters of how data is transmitted to and from the phones. I'm one of few people I know that have Bluetooth (or even Infrared) enabled phone. Everyone else is apparently fine paying the disproportionately large transmission fees for picture and text messages. Just yesterday I purchased a USB Bluetooth dongle for my computer (Belkin 10-meter one on sale this week at CompUSA for $10 after some mail-in, $30 before that). What I've tried with it so far is much, much easier than the shaky and slow IR that I'd been using (infrequently because of the inconvenience) previously.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[zakezuke]

Everyone else is apparently fine paying the disproportionately large transmission fees for picture and text messages

I don't know about you but I get unlimited text messages. I can update my address book from the web and there is no charge. But for the most part I use IM clients anyway which are totally in sync with the desktop version. If I need to exchange data I can provide a url by text, e-mail, or IM. Bluetooth would be nice, very nice, but for the most part I don't need it. The main thing I can think of using bluetooth for is a wireless keyboard for IM, assuming this feature is supported in phones. A wireless headset would be kinda spiffy but given the cost i'll stick to a wired one. As mobiles become more like PDAs I see the usefulness of bluetooth to decline. Assuming one's data plan is unlimited which is common among trio devices you can't beat using the mobile's network wireless communication for range.

Bluetooth to me is far too overpriced for what it does. I love the idea of a standard in wireless devices but I hate the fact that it costs too damned much. Hell the Logitech Cordless MX keyboard/mouse combo costs $200 about double of its propriority desktop equilivent.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[drew]

Yo It allows the service providers to be the ultimate arbiters of how data is transmitted to and from the phones ... Everyone else is apparently fine paying the disproportionately large transmission fees for picture and text messages.

a little over a year ago i went out of my way to buy a bluetooth enabled phone. i never used it once. when i couldn't stand using that lemon of a phone (sony ericsson t616) any longer i got a new samsung. no bluetooth. no camera. no infrared.

and you know what? i don't pay a cent for picture or text messages.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[UWC]

I guess I haven't found much utility yet in subscribing to a data service. Which is probably why I find Bluetooth more useful than you do as a data transmission method. I don't travel a lot, so I'm generally somewhere near a PC with an Internet connection, or will be within a few hours and probably don't have much use for one at that time. If I find myself traveling much, I'll probably pay the extra for data service. As is now, a cell phone interface, even with the most elegantly designed of applications and the 176x208 pixel resolution that seems to be the maximum of non-PDAs at the moment, is still fairly cumbersome and doesn't yet provide me enough incentive to use it as an Internet device.

Also, as I don't at the moment pay extra for a specific number of text or picture messages per month, text is 10 cents a message and picture is more.

And I fully agree with you that bluetooth accessories are far too expensive. I don't know if it's that the implentation is inherently expensive, or if there are licensing fees involved, or if manufacturers know that at the moment Bluetooth is a limited market used primarily by those who spring for higher-end phones who don't mind paying a large-ish amount for small convenience increases. For my purposes, though (data transmission), I'm really enjoying the Bluetooth. And I think I would enjoy it even if I had an unlimited data plan with my phone, as sending applications over Bluetooth to my phone will I assume be faster than finding and downloading them over GPRS.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[Anonymous Coward]

But if I got a message that said "Boyaa Wazzap", I would have have no idea what to make of it.

Same thing we would all think. "Who's the fucken retard."

Re:High school bluetoothing

[Kosi]

What on earth have drugs and cellphones/pagers in common except that both are used by people?

Re:High school bluetoothing

[UWC]

I guess there was a time when the equipment had the reputation of being used either by businesspeople or drug dealers. Since it was unlikely that there were any high schoolers who were also successful businesspeople, there was a blanket classification of the devices as drug-related. I imagine the rule had been put in place a few years before when the devices were even more rare and expensive, but I don't know. It was laughable even in 1996. High school was also, I think, the last time I ever used a pay phone. After that cell phones became pretty much ubiquitous, though I didn't end up with one of my own for a year or so after high school.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[Kosi]

I guess there was a time when the equipment had the reputation of being used either by businesspeople or drug dealers.

That's simply laughable. If I had a kid that came home and told me that a teacher had confiscated his legal possessions because of its "reputation", I'd make it clear to this person that (s)he won't do this again or face the consequences of stealing from my kid!

Re:High school bluetoothing

[UWC]

It was obviously a laughable rule, but it was well known, and I'm sure most teachers let first time offenders off with a warning. The simple fact was that the kids weren't supposed to have them in class, regardles of reason or classification. Those that were dumb or bold or forgetful enough not to silence the devices were caught. It didn't help that the only real way it was enforced was when the device started making noises in the middle of class. Also, I don't remember any instances where the student didn't get them back.

Anyway, I assume that the rule has either been removed or is ignored these days since the devices are now so completely ubiquitous.

Re:High school bluetoothing

[Kosi]

first time offenders off with a warning.

No offense to see here, so no reason for a warning.

The simple fact was that the kids weren't supposed to have them in class, regardles of reason or classification.

"Weren't supposed" by whom or what? Nobody tells my kid what it has to have in his/her pockets, as long as it does not disturb class, is illegal or else!

not to silence the devices

An official rule to silence the devices, and confiscation of not silenced ones until closing time is one thing. Confiscation because of idiots who think only dealers have cellphones is another. I would support the former and impede the latter.

Advent of Cell viruses

[_Sambo]

The coming of cell phone viruses reminded all the toothies that their random encounters could have STD consequences.

Re:Simple

[AtariAmarok]

"Brits are ugly, and you guys finally realized it."

Cut to scene of Austin Powers, mouth wide, in a full glorious grin of ruinous teeth, ogling Heath Graham: Fancy a toooothing, baby?. When it died in Europe, it first died in England.

It wasn't called "toothing"

[Anonymous Coward]

it was called bluejacking

so that probably accounts for why you cant find out any information

Re:It wasn't called "toothing"

[Zerbey]

It was also called Toothing apparently. Also, the fact that I actually looked this up proves I'm a helpless geek.

Re:It wasn't called "toothing"

[Anonymous Coward]

No so, it was toothing, jacking was just sending messages. toothing was jacking with the intent of invoking sexual activity. :P

Greedy Cell Phone Operators?

[Eyah....TIMMY]

Just like they wanted their share of itunes on cells phones or file transfers, they probably wanted to charge every messages sent via "toothing".

There was this girl we called 'Fang'...

[HBI]

'nuff said!

Re:There was this girl we called 'Fang'...

[tommck]

We called ours 'Snaggle'... ouch!

what happened

[avandesande]

what happened is that it will take much more than a little gadget for geeks to get a little action ;)

Re:what happened

[kihjin]

Well now that depends on your preferences...

like most things....

[Anonymous Coward]

... involving geeks and sex, it just didn't work.

Re:like most things....

[Anonymous Coward]

u wnt 2 do sx? no ades/hrps/men plz thx.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

How the hell did you get a karma bonus ....
Seriously Xenophobic trolling ...
We do not mind you insulting us , but you just insulted my mother and my wife
---Mike.G--

I've always said

[Anonymous Coward]

internet sex is just a myth. Everyone claims it happens and they are doing it, but I don't know anyone that's ever done it, do you?? (I don't mean e-sex.. I mean, randomly meeting people off the internet for sex..)

Silly media term was retired?

[Zerbey]

The world realised it was a silly phrase invented by the media and it was quietly retired? Or maybe all the "toothers" met up and did it properly?

Who knows, or cares?

Obviously...

[Anonymous Coward]

you've never heard of craigslist.

Re:Obviously...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're absolutely right. In 2002, a normal, attractive woman actually did post a legitimate "casual encounters" ad that led to sex of some sort with a SysAdmin in San Jose. And later that year, a pair of obese shoe-fetishists hooked up through Craigs as well and they later blogged about the experience. Other than that however, the internet has never led to any satisfying, unpaid sex between nerds and babes.

Stuff yourself full of breadcrumbs & oysters

[Anonymous Coward]

baste yourself with butter, coat yourself in herbs then come on over to my place and I will help you out.

Jennifer Beals?

[AtariAmarok]

"Along with leg warmers and Flashmobs."

Wasn't that the movie with Jennifer Beals?

wrong audience

[Triumph The Insult C]

you're not asking the right people. you must be new here ...

People turned off Bluetooth.

[geneXX]

Anyone remember that one of the first cellphone virus scares happened about this time last year. Infected people through their bluetooth enabled devices. Most people wised up and shut off their Bluetooth.

Re:People turned off Bluetooth.

[bcmm]

A real sexually transmitted computer virus?

I thought they were only in jokes...

what happend ?

[MasterOfUniverse]

you wanna know what happend??? My daughter happend dammit!

Well duh

[null etc.]

Well. What happened?

What do you think happened? It ended up being a bunch of blokes chasing after another bloke named "Shelly".

Re:Well duh

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, yes, The Internet: Where men are men; women are men; and kids are undercover FBI agents.

Re:Well duh

[aml666]

I really wish I had mod points to give you for that line!

Newman? Is that you?

[AtariAmarok]

"baste yourself with butter, coat yourself in herbs then come on over to my place and I will help you out."

Hello, Newman.... You're just waiting for Kramer to come down from sunbathing on the roof, aren't you?

Mawd pairent oop!

[Anonymous Coward]

He has teh funnay!

Re:Disappointed

[Anonymous Coward]

Lava Life?? Are you kidding me... have you seen how gross the people are on that?

Re:Simple

[hyfe]

Brits are ugly, and you guys finally realized it.

You know, when I was young I thought all those prejudices were just crap..

Then I visited London..
Then I visited Paris..
Then I met Americans travelling..

So far, the only place which hasn't been one large trip of getting prejudices fullfilled was New York, however I did get my ass kicked by one white trash wrestling maniac in a, off all places, fairly arty pub.. I still have no idea why, although I think he thought my mate was trying to hit on his girlfriend.

Happy Slapping

[PerlDudeXL]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hap py+slap

this is much worse. It never happend to me (I live on the continent) and I hope that it will never ever become popular here, but you can never trust those bored and ringtone-buying half-grownups.

Re:Happy Slapping

[phek]

i wish that would happen here in the US, I've been looking for some more reasons to beat up little kids.

it went underground

[jessecurry]

so deep don't even bother looking for it...if you're worthy it'll find you :D

Re:it went underground

[88NoSoup4U88]

First rule of Toothclub : You don't talk about Toothclub.
Second rule of Toothclub : You don't talk about Toothclub.
Third rule of Toothclub : You don't tell that the girl that is toothing, is actually a fifty-something named Bob.

Simple...

[Roger W Moore]

...9+6 months later toothing has lead to teething.

Toothing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why they call it toothing? It wouldn't have anything to do with getting your teeth abruptly remove because you sent a sex invitation to the lady sitting across from you.

Is today still April 1st?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the first I've heard about it. This sounds suspiciously like a fake term just made up for this story.

By the number of dupes lately it should be

[dark-br]

Slashdot. News for the amnesiac, stuff that mattered.

Never existed

[elgatozorbas]

This toothing stuff maybe never even existed, except as an effective rumour to frustrate a whole news-for-nerds site in one hit...

Aptly named

[stratjakt]

"Toothing" sounds exactly like the type of sexual encounter you're likely to find in the UK.

Re:Aptly named

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely that's dogging you're thinking of... ?

here's the deal

[XO]

Bluetooth is just plain not ubiquitous (i love that word) in the U.S.. Bluetooth that doesn't have a bunch of transmission modes disabled is even less so.

So, therefore, since it never took off in the U.S.. it never took off.

Every now and then I look for the "TOOTHING!" forum that sort of started the whole thing.. guy keeps getting shut down, everywhere he hosts...

Re:here's the deal

[Ilgaz]

It could take off if stuff like this below existed in XP platform:

http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Cli cker/

Not saying anything more but check it.

Also god help those poor "dongle" buyers have to install that more-evil-than-virus BT stack. If I wasn't using Mac, nobody, repeat nobody could make me buy anything named "bt" and install on x86. You know why? Installed to my bros x86 laptop running XP. If you ever get into such situation, get some non chemical tranquilizers first I say ;)

OS X got central, system based support for BT. Carrying "framework" scheme. Thats why you will see more mac bt users than PC ones based on percentage.

Doesn't change "Salling" is a genius though :)

Re:Disappointed

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he's more disappointed he couldn't read about others' sexual encounters, having already given up hope on having any himself.

Just wait a bit, it'll come back...

[Anonymous Coward]

...when the technology improves.
For example there is this company making a very promising product.

Re:Stuff yourself full of breadcrumbs & oyster

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate to break it to you, but those aren't oysters.

In reality...

[jejagua]

There were encounters. If utter disgust wasn't involved, there sometimes was pleasure. Those who succeeded succumbed to Syphilis. Those who failed wrote negative blog entries and returned to self love, as a previous /.er described.

Exactly

[bonch]

Just like the "hyperlinks" people were painting on walls for people to email with their phones to get the content. For some reason, there's this need among reporters to write about crazy social movements involving wireless technologies, to show how "zany" people are.

Re:Exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason, there's this need

It's known in the trade as 'a slow news day'. Except here, where we like to call it 'stuff that matters'.

Apparently there really is nothing interesting happening in the world, to the extent that we all have to read this insignificant guff about an imagined phenomenon that happened to fall out of a bored journalist's ass one Friday morning, probably during a hungover journey to work. You must not yet be jaded around here...

Re:Exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently there really is nothing interesting happening in the world,

Huh? Nothing interesting happening in the world? What about that old guy with the funny hat, who just left an empty chair behind?

Re:Simple

[jejagua]

Just for grins, what were your pre-conceived prejudices of NY?

Toothing? No, thanks. craigslist.org is it

[Anonymous Coward]

Greetings,

'Toothing' seems to have been a hoax. For real action, on the other hand, nothing beats Craig's List casual encounters (http://www.craigslist.org/cas/). I know from first hand experience that you can get partners for anything from going to have coffee on a lonely afternoon, to the deliciously promiscuous partner that'll go with you to Darkness Falls.

I don't know about toothing, but I figure that one of these days Craig's List casual encounters, combined with SMS and decent phone bandwidth, may lead to similar results.

Cheers,

pee-are-three

Maybe it never did happen?

[LWATCDR]

I mean really it almost sounds like a Penthouse letter. It just might be that it was all made up. Of course that is impossible. I mean the press checks their facts right?

Re:Maybe it never did happen?

[jd]

Of course they check their facts. Especially in a story like this. That doesn't mean they pay any attention to the results, it just means they're just as opportunistic as everyone else.

I forget which media mogul is attributed to the quote "Never let facts get in the way of a good story", but that's what readers/listeners want, so that's what they get.

Re:Maybe it never did happen?

[Altima(BoB)]

I forget which media mogul is attributed to the quote "Never let facts get in the way of a good story"

I believe that was good ol' Plutarch.

Look at your teeth in the mirror

[winkydink]

Mirrored links here:

Jim Hanas excertps from his very funny article on the quiet disappearance of last-year's promised digital bacchanal. "Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. You probably read about it over at Wired or Reuters or the BBC. There's a decent chance you even blogged about it. Well. What happened?"

Conspiracy

[ari_j]

Okay, there is no way that you didn't set this joke up. Either you have more than one account or you have a female friend that you collaborated with, and my money is on the former. Conspiracy of one.

Re:Conspiracy

[WhitetailKitten]

Here's your tinfoil hat.

Re:Conspiracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Your nick makes me think you are a deer hunter.

Re:Conspiracy

[Chexiepie]

Your nick makes me think you are a coward.

Oh wait...

Re:Conspiracy

[WhitetailKitten]

You missed! Please aim a little lower, please. ;)

suckers

[argoff]

What happened is that somebody came up with a clever marketing ploy to push their bluetooth enabled technology. Like many "fads" reported in the media, they are fabricated via croney deals to serve marketing purposes and have nothing to do with real news or trends.

Re:suckers

[BCW2]

And like all fads, when people fugure out it's a fad, it dies. People never admit to buying a fad item six months later because their embarrassed to have fallen for that crapola. This is just an electronic version of the pet rock with sex added to spark interest.

The pet rock was THE greatest maketing scam of the twentieth century. Wish I'd thought of it.

Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[Enrique1218]

Posting at blogs site to arrange sexual encounters. Yeah, that sounds like a winner. That's what pretty women do, scour the internet in their basements looking for their next romantic fling instead just going to a club. No, we've been avoiding it but we have hit gym, attend dance classes, and (gasp!!!) initiate a conversation with a strange girl.

Re:Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha ....Dude April fools is over. Oh! you wernt joking ?

Re:Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[The Archon V2.0]

Posting at blogs site to arrange sexual encounters.

Nonsense. Overly specific Googling is where it's at. I know it's the big thing because my site kept getting hits from someone looking for horny lonely housewives living in the forth worth area. The repeated searches were either the result of unmitigated success from the other results, or perhaps the same thought process that requires you to check the fridge twice in ten minutes when you're hungry, in case some new food teleported in when you weren't looking.

--
Tonight's secret passphrase: 'Cthulhu and his user-serviceable submarine from Iceland torment the Legion of Doom.'

Re:Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[syousef]

(gasp!!!) initiate a conversation with a strange girl

You mean a girl you don't know.

In my experience the "strange" ones are better avoided. Sure, they may promise a wild exotic encounter but what you're likely to get is a self obsessed head case that empties your wallet and turns your life into a living nightmare.

Re:Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[iB1]

It sounds like you speak from experience!

Re:Nerds have to find better ways to get laid!!!

[syousef]

It sounds like you speak from experience!

Yeah, I do. But I finally got it right.

No nibbles?

[NoseBag]

...or no bites.

It appeared in Wired

[jfengel]

I have found that there are few more accurate predictors of a failed trend than an appearance in Wired before it actually takes off. (Wired is much better when the thing has already taken off; its ability to accurately predict things that happened yesterday approaches 50%.)

mmm...

[dostick]

mmmmm... too thing...

iCopulate

[Jon_E]

make sure you use this

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

What Paris prejudices did you confirm/debunk?

Toothing becoming "aiding"?

[Gentlewhisper]

As in aids? :D

PalmOne Toothing

[rasty]

I've tried for some time the seemingly only toothing software available for P1 devices and it's terribly buggy and crash-prone. Actually unusable..

Looks like it may be all backtracked to bad programming again...!

Two words

[Kancer]

Sausage Fest

Re:Two words

[kryocore]

Two words: Sausage Fest

There goes my appetite for the rest of the week...

Re:Simple

[FidelCatsro]

Ive never found any prejudices to hold much ground ... ofcourse i am a Scottsman so wherever i have traveld and struck up a conversation in a bar i get bought drinks and asked about what i wear under my kilt (if i hear another joke about that i will go loco).
I went to france and found the people to be really nice and freindly ..I am in germany and get the same response .. i meet traveling people from the USA and what do you know , i find then to be nice people who treat me with respect.
Though i have met a fair few prats from many difrent lands .. the whole thing is people are people wherever you go ,People from the Netherlands are just like folks from brazil or aborigional australians we are all just people and little cultural difrences are the spice that makes us difrent and intresting(that and our personalitys).
Seriously if you treat people with respect you get respect in return ..viva

Sadly enough, on slashdot.....

[pg110404]

It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones.

On slashdot, this remains academic.

It was going well....

[shrewtamer]

...until people realised that a raw bluetooth connection wasn't a good indicator for romantic success. Even so, clutching your cellphone and willing it to transform into the partner of your dreams is a good way to avoid eye contact with all those people you are so close to and yet so far away from in the tube.

Maybe some software on your phone that stored some key personal questions and personality profiles and automatically scanned for matches would have worked better. Version 2 will automatically arrange legal documents and allow access to well signed and verified medical reports. Carriage number 3 will be like a bar, 2 a bedroom (ewww, sex on the tube!) and 1 a mobile registry office. People will be flirting with their partners by waiting at the appropriate point on the platform.

Personally, I'd recommend forgetting the whole bluetooth / people thing and just going for shrews. They are much simpler. But unfortunately still too complicated to make a proper computer model.

Re:It was going well....

[acb]

Shrews? As in small rodents?

Re:It was going well....

[shrewtamer]

Yep, apparently some people like to use a tube and a small rodent.....and well, yes its illegal in a lot of countries!

Not me! If I had any shrews then I'd keep em in a cage or put them down....they'd play havoc with the native fauna in NZ

Tooth fairy

[Anonymous Coward]

teeth are for gay people, thats why faries come and collect them - Master shake

Bluetooth Protocol

[__aaijsn7246]

Here's a little article from @Stake about Bluetooth, as well as some other insecurities.

I believe that even if the phone is in 'hidden' mode, on some models, one can still find a user's address by testing out every address. Redfang does that. This is brute force however and quite slow. In fact it could take up to a few years, as it takes about 20 seconds per address.

One thing I noticed while living in an apartment and playing with Bluetooth.. it is possible to tell when other people are in their homes or not. I was tempted to make a little app and compile statistics as to when/where people came and left, but then I remembered I wasn't the US federal government ;)

There are a bunch of other programs available to the Googler.

First rule of tooth club...

[DarthShader]

Gentlemen,

The first rule of tooth club is: You do not talk about tooth club.
The second rule of tooth club is: You DO NOT talk about tooth club.
Third rule of tooth club, someone yells "Stop!", goes limp, taps out, the toothing is over.
Fourth rule, only two people to a toothing.
Fifth rule, one toothing at a time, fellas.
Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes.
Seventh rule, toothings will go on as long as they have to.
And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at tooth club, you have to tooth.

Re:First rule of tooth club...

[DaFrogg]

And then, like, I realized that there was never a tooth- just me toothing to myself. Maybe that's why it never worked.

Re:First rule of tooth club...

[The Archon V2.0]

The scary thing is that most of these rules can still apply, not so much to the 'toothing' part, but to the sex part that supposedly follows.

Third rule of tooth club, someone yells "Stop!", goes limp, taps out, the toothing is over.

And if you go limp too early, you're not allowed to say "This has never happened to me before!"

Fourth rule, only two people to a toothing.

No orgies. Set those up on your own time.

Fifth rule, one toothing at a time, fellas.

See rule four.

Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes.

Or socks. If you want to wear your shirt and socks, find a job in redneck porn or something. This is a class establishment.

Seventh rule, toothings will go on as long as they have to.

Stiffy pills count as illegal doping, so any four hour erections^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htoothings will be considered suspect.

And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at tooth club, you have to tooth.

Just my luck, my first night and it's only guys.

--
Tonight's secret passphrase: 'Batman is randomly stoned and his hot tub from Yemen is illegal.'

Re:First rule of tooth club...

[Anonymous Coward]

The first, and I've been reading for seven years, truly funny post that was rated Funny. The rest are shit. I mean truly unfunny shit written by dullards. Yours, on the other hand, is fantastic.

Re:First rule of tooth club...

[lisaparratt]

The first rule of tooth club is: You must not talk about tooth club.
The second rule of tooth club is: YOU MUST NOT TALK ABOUT TOOTH CLUB ... Wait i got that wrong. The second rule is: No smoking

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Brits are ugly
French are arrogant
Irish are drunks
Polish are stupid
Italians are fat
Dutch are drug addicts
Germans are humourless

So which continent was it that (re)populated most of the USA? Should we conclude that Americans are ugly, arrogant, stupid, fat, stoner, drunkards with a crap sense of humour? Seems there might be something to those mindless prejudices after all!

typical slashdot question

[Anonymous Coward]

Why aren't I getting laid? What has Slashdot come to...

Re:typical slashdot question

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a good question... almost as grammatical as "why isn't our children learning?"

Missed Connections

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they say that about Missed Connections on Craigslist as well. Lots of people posting, but I don't think there are any success stories.

If it weren't for toothing I'd know who...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...may father was you insensitive clod!

Ugly people started to show up

[Anonymous Coward]

The subject says it all. Too many ugly nerds started toothing...

The answer

[WilyCoder]

What happened to toothing? It worked. I got laid. Next question?

the only people this will work for...

[timmarhy]

is fags, because it's 2 horny blokes. 99.9999% of women just won't go for this.

Shameless Self-Promotion

[DumbSwede]

I wrote a story in 1991 entitled "Mixed Signals" (about 40 pages) a cautionary near-future tail about people using PDA like devices to hook up in social settings. Although in my story the craze took off.

Should anyone care to read this (possibly amateurish) story, please leave a comment on the comment page (currently empty) if you give it a try.

There are adult themes in this story, so I don't know whether to state that as a disclaimer or inducement (probably both).

What about podjacking?

[Rimbo]

Another "craze" I read an article about in some magazine that hasn't happened to me, despite having an iPod for well over a year, wearing it visibly with a nearby university full of other ipod-wearing people, and having fine hygiene and none-too-shabby appearance. I haven't seen anyone else doing it, either, at the bus stop, on the train, on planes or anywhere.

Supposedly, a good-looking chick will go up to you, pull out her white headphone miniplug, and look at you expectantly. You're then supposed to remove your white headphone plug, put it into her ipod, while she does the same to yours, and you each enjoy the other's music for a time.

I was skeptical of the craze when I read about it over a year ago. The "craze" has been mentioned in other magazine articles. But I'm beginning to feel it was manufactured by magazine article writers who were desperate for something to write about.

Re:What about podjacking?

[WillAffleckUW]

Supposedly, a good-looking chick will go up to you, pull out her white headphone miniplug, and look at you expectantly. You're then supposed to remove your white headphone plug, put it into her ipod, while she does the same to yours, and you each enjoy the other's music for a time.

This only happens in Marketing groups.

Besides, you don't know where her iPod's been ...

Re:What about podjacking?

[unitron]

"Besides, you don't know where her iPod's been ..."

...or who else's plug has been in it. :-)

What happened ? You tell me !

[88NoSoup4U88]

"Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was sweeping England last year as bored commuters arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-enabled cellphones.
and
Well, what happened ?

This is Slashdot, you know ?

Two More

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

Sword Fight

Dead

[Bloater]

The toothers all died of sexually transmitted diseases. Either that or they got banned from the public transport network.

Conceivable?

[DaveJay]

Is it possible -- not a fact, necessarily, but possible -- that people who use their phones to successfully hook up in this fashion are doing so as one of many how-do-I-meet-strangers-for-a-shag tools in their arsenal...and that, like many other tools used as conversation starters in bars and whatnot, people successfully using it have no time nor need to spend time talking about it online?

Or, in other words, just because it doesn't exist online doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Real adventurers do Passport RFIDing

[WillAffleckUW]

Where you surf the RFID on the opposite gender's passports, to see if you're compatible.

The good thing about it is you know his/her name and birthplace, as well as which passport it is.

The bad thing about it is that so does his/her girl/boyfriend ...

Demographics

[Anonymous Coward]

"cute 20-something you were TXTing a minute ago seems to have become a disturbing 50 year old man with bad teeth and worse breath."

Oh, sure. We all know that the text messaging market is dominated by middle aged men. Young women don't like text messaging on their cellphones at all.

Wake up, geeks. This isn't 1993. Electronic communication is no longer about electronics, making it masculine. It's about the communication. This makes it overwhelmingly feminine.

Re:Simple

[swv3752]

Q: Why do the men in Scotland wear kilts?

A: Because the sheep can hear a zipper a mile away. :P Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Re:Simple

[engwar]

I'm not the parent's poster but just a guy from the midwest who went to New York expecting the cliche that New Yorkers are rude.

To the contrary, people came up to us asking if we needed help with directions when we were looking at a street map on the corner.

Only once did someone push ahead of us in line (coffee shop) and on a different visit I think we were overcharged by a street vendor.

But for the most part people there were like people anywhere.

I did have a realization while sitting in a SOHO cafe that color didn't seem to matter there. This might be different if I were in some snooty part of NYC or in Harlem or something but in SOHO it didn't seem to matter what race you were. People fit in or not based on fashion sense. And I was a hayseed from the sticks. Fun times though. I liked NY.

Girls

[angedinoir]

It was a great idea until they found out that only men used bluetooth in this manner. It soon became a huge, wireless sausage-fest.

Wired over hyping something? Unpossible!

[Anonymous Coward]

I could never imagine Wired over hyping some sort of technology movement.

All your answers are belong to us

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.thetriforce.com/newblog/?p=53

The skeptical among us emerge victorious.

Two words...

[Anonymous Coward]

Keira Knightley. :)

I believe this was replaced...

[TheVidiot]

by "hey, baby, wanna fuck?"

Twothing?

[owlstead]

Maybe they just did the one thing and forgot about the other thing.

what cracks up Europeans

[Anonymous Coward]

is the crystal white teeth found on so many US actors, often digitally enhanced. Straight teeth can be argued to be "natural", but shiny white teeth simply aren't.

Plain vs gorgeous

[wombatmobile]

"Looking back, I had more fun with the plain jane lookalikes who caught my attention because they were my kind of lighthearted kinky in the bedroom that with the look-at-me gorgeous women I've brought home from the bar only to find out that they were plain boring in bed. "

Yes, those gorgeous women sure are boring in bed. I am tired of the wasted effort pleasuring gorgeous women that I bring home from the bar. Please, let's just concentrate on the plain ones.

Re:Plain vs gorgeous

[geminidomino]

Parent is modded "Funny" but I wonder if he wasn't being serious.

Women who know they've "got it" HAVE been more boring in bed, in my experience. They seem to adopt that "I'm doing my part just BEING here." Yawn.

Then you get those like my current GF. Easy on the eyes, but not a supermodel, and she's a wildcat. Whooo.

blue toothing never existed

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a marketing scheme to sell their devices. Trying to make them sound hip and edgy. Giving desperate guys a sliver of hope they'll be able to have sex.

It was a flash fad that died.

[EvilStein]

Seems like yet another attempt to jump on the "young new hip" bandwagon.

Remember "Flash Mobs?" They were all the rage about a year ago, and now you hear nothing about them at all.

It was another flash in the pan fad that came & went. Nobody should really be surprised by this at all. :)

They all got traced for paternity suits

[WillAffleck]

by their DNA.

So they stopped.

No Such Thing.

[MuMart]

Methinks it was a marketing stunt to shift a few more bluetooth phones to gullible 16 year olds.

Toothing never existed, so it'll be on Oprah soon.

[The Archon V2.0]

Hmmmm. Let's see.

1) Toothing seemingly never existed outside the media;
2) it involves sex;
3) it's supposedly a secret, almost cultlike group;
4) it involves modern technology of a sort not understood by soccer moms but possibly used by their children.

Therefore:

"Tomorrow on Oprah: 'Toothing!' Is your little girl sending a message that she wants sex and she wants it now?"

And they can have an 'expert' on, who's met 'toothers' and knows that bluetoothers just give blowjobs, but redtoothers are into anal sex, and blacktoothers want to be sodomized by the entire football team, including the mascot.

--
Tonight's secret passphrase: The cautious cow from Azerbaijan is acrobatic and Snoopy nukes the railroad quietly.

Re:Simple

[Anita Coney]

I totally agree that American's are fat. I'm SHOCKED at how fat we are.

We are also very arrogant. Because the vast majority of American's don't travel outside of the states very often, we're not really aware of what's going on everywhere else. From that we tend to believe that nothing else really matters.

But, that being said, there is no doubt that brits are ugly. I think it has something to do with the complete lack of dental care over there. When ever rich brits look like in-breeds from the US south, you KNOW something is wrong!

Re:Simple

[Anita Coney]

Simple. I limit my trolling and flamebaiting to about four a week. Strangely I rarely get modded down for them. This one was obviously an exception.

As they say, one man's joke is other man's troll.

Re:Simple

[Anita Coney]

See, I'm not crazy! This guy gets it!

Hmm...

[pbaer]

It never existed?

those wacky brits ...

[porky_pig_jr]

you never know whether it's hoax or not.

Digital "Shots" part 2

[Anonymous Coward]

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=140925&cid=118 06373

i already mentioned this once.. hehe, and was corrected by people claiming it to be ubiquitous. oh well

Re:a/s/l ::: you have NO life

[Anonymous Coward]

seriously. If somebody unplugs the cable, youre dead.
What a pitty.

actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

[ sorry to any Brits, I know you don't all have bad teeth ]

yes... yes, we do.

:)

Well

[elucido]

What is the percentage of spouses who cheat? Getting married can also aid you in your quest for STDs. There is no such thing as safe sex, live with reality.

Re:a/s/l ::: you have NO life

[ShieldW0lf]

seriously. If somebody unplugs the cable, youre dead.

What a pitty.

Whatever you say. Did you read my post? I don't do ALL my socializing on the internet. I don't say "hmm... it's friday night and the little one is at her moms... ah hell fuck the bar I'm just going to hang in a chat room". I just picked up a new phone number and a date for next week with a cute little redhead while returning movies to the video store an hour ago. If you're painting a picture in your head of some pasty-faced introverted hermit, you're way the fuck off base.

For a lot of people, particularly single parents like myself, there are a lot more hours in the week that they spend sitting at home choosing between tv, book and computer for how to spend the later part of their evening than there are hours spent hanging out in stereotypical social settings.

And the boundary between the two doesn't really exist. It's a fiction. Chat with someone in a local chat room and meet them for coffee half an hour later. Pick up a girl on the bus, find out she's engaged, chat with her when you're sick of working, meet someone else through her, take them out on Friday. Its a way of expanding your social envrionment, not a replacement.

Sounds to me like you're the one that needs to get a life instead of passing judgements on other peoples.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor dental care could conceivably still yield an island of good looking people with bad smiles, but we know perfidious Albion's fate has been much darker.

I have had a theory for years and I invite anyone to come up with a better one. Way back in the day, the now desolate sandbar was once teeming with hot women and strapping men. But the Vikings/Romans came and took the hot women away to Scandinavia/Italy, and they killed all the able bodied men. That left an island full of the ugly and the infirm. They bred, and then, when times were tight, inbred.

Lather, rinse, and repeat for a few hundred years, and you have present day Manchester.

Fancy a shag, luv?

DUH

[Anonymous Coward]

Toothing, somehow, DOES work. Last Saturday at a party you could search for available bluetooth phones and PDAs and send messages. If accepted you could buy him/her a drink.

Ahh, you had to register at a counter first and change your phones/pdas name to a given one....

And it ended...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> Remember 'toothing'? It was a craze that was
> sweeping England last year as bored commuters
> arranged sexual encounters using Bluetooth-
> enabled cellphones.

It ended when:

"Hey, you're actually a dude!"

"Hey, so are you! And a fat one at that!"

Sorry, stupid question...

[tattoi.nobori]

For us long-time /. readers...

What is this "sex" you speak of? Can you run linux on it?

I dunno...

[lortho]

What proof do we have that this *was* a hoax? Seems just as likely to me that someone craving attention could claim to have pulled of some great hoax (especially right after April Fool's Day?) as the actual occurrence of 'toothing' does. I dunno, maybe it just goes to show that you really can't believe anything you read, much less anything you read *about* what you read.

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

And to complete the joke:

Q: So why do the English wear pants?

A: Because goats have crap hearing.

It does happen here...kinda

[tomjgroves]

I live in Dubai, and if you're in a bar with bluetooth enabled then it's possible that you'll get a vcard sent to you...

Don't start booking your flights here yet though - apparently they're only from hookers. Needless to say, I've started switching bluetooth off in certain bars now :)

Re:a/s/l ::: you have NO life

[Soruk]

seriously. If somebody unplugs the cable, youre dead.

The trick is, of course, to get to the exit first.

in Gulf Countries?

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a documentary in T.V. about the Political Situation in the Gulf Countries. Among other stuff, they showed how the teenagers communicated with one other using SMS and I think through blue tooth. This is interesting because the sexes are seggregated everywhere and you practically never get to see the other sex unless you are married to one or are a relative.

Mobile BT app for Toothing?

[spinctrl]

www.proxidating.com seems a good commercial implementation.

toothing - NOT

[deadweight]

I think the idea that there are any girls that need frequent sex with random strangers but were frustrated in this desire until Bluetooth is perfectly rational.

Everything dies.

[Grendel Drago]

What, the fact that relationships eventually end invalidates any and all meaning they may have had? Everything dies.

--grendel drago

Bracelets!

[Grendel Drago]

Remember those media reports about girls wearing a hojillion colored plastic bracelets, and the media was breathlessly reporting that those bracelets were exchangeable for sexual favors? Oh, hey, it's on Snopes. When I was in high school, it was soda-can tabs. Kids talk smack, adults take it seriously, and we play "scare the adults". What a crock.

--grendel drago

Re:Bracelets!

[utexaspunk]

yeah, there's one that refuses to die. people are so gullible, and so readily believe that their children are complete idiots...

an aside

[xixax]

The right to die is a personal choice, not a place for Republican grandstanding

I thought the Right to Die was foreign policy.

Re:Simple

[Anita Coney]

Good theory. I like it!

7 years

[lorcha]

and counting...

Re:Simple

[unitron]

"We do not mind you insulting us , but you just insulted my mother and my wife"

You think that was insulting, wait'll someone asks if that's one person or two.

Virus and ASL freaks still exist, can't bother

[Ilgaz]

I was at a Prodigy concert at Summer. Not so big concert like 5000 people. Had 5 vcard requests and 2 viruses.

Also thanks to that not so fake symbian virus (blame media which is afraid of nokia/sony ad revenue) everybody I know made their phones hidden. A guy I know actually accepted and installed virus, even carrying "reboot" order :P

It was lame anyway but for gods sake, bt is not dead (if not posted already)

More evil one comes, Bluetooth 2. When its down to regular customer, being 802.11x compatible, you will see the real lamer party ;)

Just wait for this Summer when "phone show off" saga begins.

Available on various handsets/PDA

[generikz]

Found this website. It's not "toothing" but "proxidating" which is quite similar in concept.

http://www.proxidating.com/index.php?code_pays=UK

Choose your flavor! (Symbian or JAVA)

Julien